Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner’s problem with his team’s play in its loss to Gardner-Webb on Monday wasn’t that the Yellow Jackets weren’t playing hard. Players were still diving on the floor for loose balls and the like. It was other things.
“I called it unintelligent energy,” Pastner said. “Yeah, you can be playing hard, but if you’re not following and executing our principals, then we get ourselves in trouble.”
Tech traveled to the other end of the spectrum two nights later, upsetting Arkansas on the road on Wednesday night, just the Jackets’ fifth road win in 27 tries in Pastner’s tenure. When Tech plays Georgia Saturday at McCamish Pavilion, the Jackets will have to be closer to the standards of focus and smart play achieved in the 69-65 win over the Razorbacks.
“If we defend at a high level, we’ve got a chance to win, and if we don’t defend at a high level, it’s just going to be hard for us to win the game,” Pastner said. “Pretty simple as that.”
Georgia is 6-4, the same as Tech, in coach Tom Crean’s first season. The Bulldogs have won three consecutive games in the series. A fourth consecutive win for UGA would be its longest winning streak over the Jackets since winning seven in a row 1980-84.
“He won at Marquette, he won at Indiana, he’s going to win at Georgia,” Pastner said of Crean.
For the Jackets, Saturday’s game will continue to help uncover what they may be as the start of ACC play approaches. Tech is 1-3 against high-major teams. Tech has defended well in the defeats – the Jackets are ranked 15th in adjusted defensive efficiency (KenPom) – but offensive play has faltered. (This has been something of a theme in Pastner’s three seasons.)
Pastner holds optimism for what his team, picked to finish 13th in the ACC, could become.
“I think we can be really good,” Pastner said. He went on to say, though, that the Jackets “can still play really well and not win.”
Pastner switched his starting lineup for the Arkansas game, putting in freshmen Michael Devoe and Khalid Moore and taking out guards Brandon Alston and Curtis Haywood. Pastner said he figured he will stick with the same five – forwards James Banks and Moses Wright, guard Jose Alvarado and Devoe and Banks.
He also shortened his rotation, playing eight players and giving almost all of the playing time to seven. In previous games, the bench had been longer.
“I’m more comfortable as a coach playing a shorter bench,” Pastner said. “Obviously, this year, we’ve gone with longer benches. Part of that is because we hadn’t had a lot of separation (between players) and we’ve got more depth, but I think it’s probably best for our team so everybody knows their roles and their roles are defined as being a shorter rotation situation.”
Tech will play Georgia in November next season, part of a two-season agreement between the two schools to play earlier in the season while school is in session. In the past three years, the game has been played on December 19 or 20.
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